How important is internal linking?

Extremely important and massively underutilized. Internal links help Google understand your site structure, distribute page authority, and guide users to related content.

I've seen rankings improve just from fixing internal linking strategy—no new content needed. Think of your site like a network: isolated pages struggle, but well-connected pages support each other. When I audit sites, broken internal linking is one of the most common issues I find. Strategic internal links between related pages create topic clusters that boost overall authority. It's foundational SEO that many overlook because it's not flashy.